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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511495">I Have Been Changed</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkevilbob/pseuds/pinkevilbob'>pinkevilbob</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hades (Video Game 2018)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Enemies to Friends, Gen, Pre-Canon, Torture</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-08 04:07:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,799</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27511495</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/pinkevilbob/pseuds/pinkevilbob</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Centuries of torture and pushing a boulder up a hill can change a man. Especially if he was an arrogant king who tried to best death.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sisyphus &amp; Bouldy (Hades Video Game)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>50</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>I Have Been Changed</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I have a lot of thoughts and opinions about Sisyphus and how different of a man he must've been back when he was alive.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The boulder sat there not moving, mocking the former king. It was his punishment; to push the boulder up a hill for all eternity. There was a trick hidden somewhere in it. Something so simple must’ve hidden something more. Unfortunately, Sisyphus wasn’t given any chances to think about it before the biting whips of the Furies cracked upon his back.</p><p>He bit back a cry refusing to give the Fury that satisfaction. His chiton clung to him wet with blood and sweat. “Tired already? We’ve only begun,” the Fury said with a smug smirk.</p><p>Sisyphus stayed silent and gave the boulder a mighty shove. The boulder didn’t budge. He trembled with rage glaring at the stone. It was the foremost of his adversaries.</p><hr/><p>Time was impossible to track in the underworld. The dead had no need to sleep or eat and neither did their captors. So the passage of time was a slippery one to keep track of.</p><p>But Sisyphus was certain that he had been in Tartarus for several months. Two at the least and five at the most. And the boulder still hadn’t moved an inch. Sisyphus hated that thing even more than he did the Furies. For them, he mainly held fear. Funny how a few whips could strip a king of his pride.</p><p>Even the Furies were growing bored of his lack of progress. “Why did Hades even include the boulder?” they asked each other, gossiping between lashes. “He could’ve just made it an infinite lashes and just get it done with.”</p><p>Sisyphus remained silent and shoved at the boulder expecting nothing. But it moved. The boulder moved rolling a foot up the hill and immediately rolled back knocking Sisphus over.</p><p>The former king stared at the boulder for a long time and then laughed. He did it. He had actually gotten the dumb rock to move.</p><p>CRACK! went the Fury’s whip. “Stop that! ... It’s creepy.”</p><p>Sisyphus barely noticed the sting of the whip on his shoulder. He could do this. It was only a foot for now, but it was a start.</p><hr/><p>More often than not, Sisyphus was getting the boulder to move. Not by much, but once he had managed to get it to go three steps up the stairs. The Furies weren’t impressed, but Sisyphus couldn’t help but be pleased with himself.</p><p>“Okay, one more try,” he whispered to himself. Sisyphus braced himself and shoved at the boulder. It rolled under his hands and he pushed it along. One step, two steps, three steps. “Come on, we can do it.”</p><p>The boulder stuck for a moment and Sisyphus dreaded the inevitable roll back, but instead it gave a little and continued to roll. Four steps, five steps. He’d beaten his record. It was then that the boulder stuck and went back down, but that did not stop the fact that it was the furthest that they’d ever gone.</p><p>Sisyphus paused. ‘They’? When had he started thinking of himself and the boulder as a ‘they’? He was alone in this. There was no one on his side in all of this. Not the Furies, not the shades milling about, and least of all the foolish boulder he was pushing uphill.</p><p>But, the word ‘they’ wouldn’t leave his head. It felt good to include himself in a ‘they’. Sisyphus shook his head. The boulder was nothing to him but a burden and it never would be. He drew back his shoulders and shoved the boulder only earning a little rock. It was him alone on that hill and it always would be.</p><hr/><p>Sisyphus was starting to get good at pushing the boulder. He’d long stopped trying to guess how long he’d been down there, but he had the feeling that it likely had been years. No longer was he counting the steps. Nearly every attempt moved the boulder and now he was disappointed by any attempt that didn’t get him past the familiar marker of the 100th step.</p><p>He’d gotten halfway up the stairs(or at least what Sisyphus assumed was halfway up) and started to think that this might’ve been the time that got him up to the top. That was until the Fury’s lash broked him out of his thoughts and he tripped stumbling forward. Sisyphus pushed the boulder as he fell onto his face. The inevitable impact of the boulder on him wouldn’t kill the former king, not in a permanent way at least, but that did not mean that it wouldn’t be incredibly painful.</p><p>Sisyphus looked up with dread in his stomach waiting for the boulder to hit him, but the ground was uneven and the boulder bounced. The giant stone flew over Sisyphus and landed with an earth shaking thud continuing its way down the hill.</p><p>"Mmmmurrderr?" the Fury said in surprise.</p><p>Sisyphus stared at the stone and it bounced down the rest of the way down the stairs.</p><p>The Fury cracked the whip on him and he hurried down the stairs to meet up with the boulder.</p><p>He got into position to push the boulder, but he got his head close to it first and whispered, "You missed me." It was only stone and rock, but he couldn't help but feel like this was on purpose, that it didn't want to hit him. The former king shook his head. Sisyphus was just being silly, but he couldn't shake the thought.</p><p>A whip cracked down on Sisyphus and he cried out in pain. He had work to do, but he didn't resent it so much.</p><hr/><p>Every round of pushing his boulder up the endless stairs was growing more and more painful. There was a new element that had been added to his punishment. The shackles around Sisyphus's wrists were shrinking. When he had first entered the chamber that held his boulder, the shackled hung loosely around his wrists and middles. But now they were tight to the point that his hands were swollen and purple. Pushing his boulder now made them ache almost as much as the whips pained his back.</p><p>What was starting to become natural was now awkward. Sisyphus was slipping far earlier than he once had.</p><p>"Get back up," the Fury said. He had learned their names by this point and this one was Megaera, the closest one to being patient. She would sometimes speak instead of just using her whip one time out of 20 which was a blessing in and of itself.</p><p>With a groan, Sisyphus got back up and put his hands on his boulder with a wince."Yes ma'am."</p><p>"Wait," Megaera said, approaching him. She grabbed his arm and looked at his shackles and hands. "Since when has this been like this?"</p><p>"Oh, new part of the punishment," Sisyphus said, "the shackles shrink."</p><p>The Fury smirked. "No, it isn't. There would've been a pile of paperwork for us ifa punishment had been added."</p><p>Sisyphus stared at her for a moment before averting his gaze. "What?"</p><p>"The shackles aren't shrinking, you're growing. You've been punishing that boulder for nearly a hundred years," Megaera said. "Of course, you've gotten stronger." She almost seemed impressed.</p><p>He looked at his arms. When he was alive, the former king would've never been considered small and his strength was a pride of his, but as he flexed, it put his former self to shame. "Oh."</p><p>"I'll order a new set for you. It's no fun if you're not at your peak," she said before leaving the room.</p><p>Sisyphus watched the door for a long moment not believing his luck. He sat down enjoying the break leaning against his boulder. Never before had he considered the possibility that he could still change and grow physically. "Thank you," he said to his boulder. The break was only possible because of how the punishment strengthened him.</p><p>His boulder sat there. It had two big indents on the surface. Not deep enough to affect how it rolled, but they looked like eyes. A small chip brought to mind a nose. Beneath it was a line that ran halfway across. Sysiphus took his chain and used one of the links to finish the line into a smile. "There you go. Now I've changed you too."</p><hr/><p><br/>Breaks were rare and far between, but occasionally Lord Hades would call away the Furies from their task and Sisyphus could just breathe. He’d overheard something involving a dog and a teen wreaking havoc in the House of Hades. The thought of it made Sisyphus smile. Whoever the pair were, they must’ve been quite a handful to require all of the Furies.</p><p>He sat down next to his boulder. "Nice to have a break isn't it?" Sisyphus asked. It'd been years since their last break when his shackles needed replacing again. Sisyphus was on his third pair and they were starting to become snug again.</p><p>His boulder smiled at him not moving. Sisyphus made certain that his boulder was face up so it could look around the room.</p><p>"We've been at this for a long time. Sometimes it feels like I've been doing this my whole life," Sisyphus said. "I almost wonder if it would've been better if I had. I wasn't a good man when I was above. Alive? Don't know if I entirely count as dead. It's odd."</p><p>The boulder was silent.</p><p>"I was so clever, so cunning. And so cruel. I could've done anything, been anything. Maybe even changed things for the better, but all I cared about was myself and what did that get me? You. Not that I mind," Sisyphus hurriedly added. "If I had you back then, would've I done it all? Too much pride spoils a man. You would've humbled me. You have now, but I can't help but wonder if this is just too late."</p><p>Still smiling, his boulder stared at him.</p><p>Sisyphus sighed. "I think being here is changing me for the better, you know? But feels a little wasted. There's no one for me to help or who could benefit from me."</p><p>His boulder remained silent.</p><p>"Well, yes, there's the shades, but they're no longer themselves. Their only needs are handled in the paperwork sector and I'm no help whatsoever there." More silence. "And you of course, but I don't know if you need anything."</p><p>The silence weighed heavy over them.</p><p>"Except for a name," Sisyphus said. It was a silly thing. His boulder was only stone, but it felt more real than the Furies did sometimes. "I'm sorry, I've been talking all this time and I don't even know your name." He gave it some thought. "Bouldy. You look like a Bouldy to me."</p><p>Bouldy smiled at the former king.</p><p>"Glad you like it," Sisyphus said. "It suits you."</p><p>Bouldy smiled again. He was a good friend.</p>
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